


folklore.

by mariiposie



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: F/M, betty - taylor swift - Freeform, cheerleader gina!, oblivious ricky!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:22:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26195569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariiposie/pseuds/mariiposie
Summary: would you have me, would you want me? would you tell me to go fuck myself?-ricky finally realises why gina porter has been playing on his mind like an echo.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen & Gina Porter, Ricky Bowen/Gina Porter
Comments: 3
Kudos: 66





	folklore.

He watched on as she was swept in, with a wave of other cast members, into the backstage area of the East High Theatre Department. The first time he’d seen her - as soon as she’d glided across the stage, and masterfully danced what he’d seen her rehearsing for nights on end.

Before she’d left.

He tucked his hands into his pockets as she saw him, her eyes widened and she walked over to him. “I didn’t think we’d ever see you again.”

She smiled, nodding slowly. “That makes two of us.” She was playing with her fingers, a nervous habit he’d seen her do before. 

He still hadn’t completely processed the fact that she was back yet. When she’d left; it’d taken him more than a little while to forget about her. Not that he had entirely. She always lingered, like a faded memory, in the back of his mind.

“I wish -” He hesitated. He struggled to form words because Gina Porter was standing in front of him and here and so very real and smiling as if she’d never left. “I don’t know what to say.”

She tilted her head, frowning slightly, but the smile that showed him how happy she was to be back was still very much painted across her face. “Don’t say anything,” She gently nudged him with her elbow, laughing quietly under her breath. “Just fly dude.”

He smiled at her. One of the stagehands came around the corner hurriedly and in a state of more than mild panic, telling him to get into the harness for Getcha’ Head in the Game. He took one last look at the girl he’d forced himself to forget about, stood in front of him smiling and almost expectant. But all he said was; “Gotta go.”

He was sure he heard her say something more but he stepped past her and continued.

-

“Is Todd the only reason you left the show?” She asked, tilting her head at him. Her face had dropped significantly, she wasn’t as smiley as she had been the last time she’d seen him. Somehow she knew. Not that it was a secret.

The truth was, in the week Gina had been gone, and he’d resigned himself to the fact that he’d never see her again, never laughed like he had with her, never smiled like he had at her, he’d found himself falling back into his old ways.

He’d let himself be caught up by Nini again.

Maybe it was just in the vague hope that being back with her would remind him of before any of this happened. Before the show, before his parents had split up. Before Todd.

Maybe, just maybe, this time he loved her in the way she wanted to be loved by him. 

Whatever reason it may have been, this time, he was thinking about Nini. “It’s Nini’s big moment. The best thing I can do for her is to take a step back, and watch.”

She smiled at him. “Come on then. Let’s watch.”

He thought for a moment. “I don’t know. Seeing that dude, in my costume?”

“Nightmare fuel, for sure.” She laughed, nudging him gently with her elbow for the second time that night. “You owe it to the team.” She bit the inside of her mouth, taking a smaller step closer to him. “Let’s go watch EJ Caswell sweep himself off his feet.”

He smiled at her, laughing down at his feet. Words couldn’t describe how good it felt to be laughing with her again. Like she never even left in the first place. “I’m glad you came back.”

And when she smiled back as warm as he’d ever seen her, he had to remind herself, as he did countless other times this night, that she would be leaving again after this. That she’d walk out just as quickly as she’d waltzed back in.

She didn’t say anything. She still smiled at him, though. Like she was ignoring the fact that he was doing this for Nini. A girl he hadn’t mentioned once after they’d become friends

He opened his arms, letting her take the lead. 

And when he stood beside her in the auditorium, he felt it again. It was like she’d never left. Like they were at how they were before. She lingered, ever-present in his mind, and every time he glanced at her, it was like he was seeing her in a new light. 

It was still Nini he was here for. She had been why he’d pulled out of the show in the first place, why EJ Caswell was currently, and Gina phrased it the best, sweeping himself off his feet on stage. Yet, it was Gina who occupied his mind.

And then Nini walked over. Phone light in hand, shining it right at him. He glanced at Gina once more, almost asking her what to do, if he should go with Nini, or take a step back, like he said he would. Yet, he didn’t get a chance to look at her in that phone light. Because Nini had already taken him away from her.

-

“I love you.” He blurted out just as Nini began to walk away. “I meant to say it, that day in your bedroom. And I’ve kicked myself every day since.” As soon as the words had come out of his mouth and he had spoken them into existence, he hadn’t been entirely sure where they were going. He let them lead anyway.

When he said the words, he half expected himself to stop thinking about Gina there and then. To not have her face on his mind, to not have her words weave their way around every follicle of his being. He didn’t even know why he was thinking about her.

Either way, it ended with Nini’s lips on his and, entirely unbeknownst to him, Gina frozen in shock in the doorway, watching on.

-

Nini stood wide-eyed in front of him. He held a leaflet and an acceptance letter, signed by the Dean of the Young Actor’s Conservatory in Denver, and addressed directly to her.

“I was going to tell you,” she sighed stepping closer to her and placing her hand gently on his cheek, “But-”

“But you thought you could leave without telling me?” He shrugged her off, stepping backward, away from her.

“No, I wasn’t going to -” She huffed. “Ricky, I’m leaving tomorrow.”

He took a seat on the end of her bed, putting his head into his hands. “So? What does this mean Nini?” 

She joined him, keeping her hands in her lap. “Denver is eight hours away, Ricky.”

He rubbed his hand over his face and looked up at her. “So this is it?”

“This is it.” She sighed.

**Betty, I won’t make assumptions about why you switched your homeroom but, I think it’s cause of me.**

Maybe there had been more than a sliver of truth to what Gina had told him at Thanksgiving. “Everything’s changing, and just when you think you’re used to it. It changes again.” Words that echoed throughout his mind.

Perhaps that was the worst part. When Nini had told him that she was leaving, his first thought was about telling Gina. How she’d react, considering she was there by his side, watching as everything happened. It was Gina that had to watch when Nini pulled him back onto the stage. It was Gina that had to watch when he’d told her that it was because of Nini, that was he felt about Nini was why he dropped out of the show in the first place.

But he still hadn’t seen her since that night. When she’d taken a step back, and watched. He’d tried texting, tried calling her, but just like Thanksgiving, he’d got complete radio silence. He hadn’t heard a single thing from her.

“Oh, so she’s like _gone_ gone?” Red asked from beside him.

They were walking back through one of the crowded East High hallways. Ricky nodded in reply to Red’s question. “ _Gone_ gone. She’s in Denver now.”

He’d spent most of the walk into school recapping everything that had happened over the past couple of weeks. Sure, it had passed by within the snap of a finger, but within that time, Nini had broken up with him and moved almost eight hours away. Most of which he hadn’t told anyone until it all came pouring out of him when Red had asked him something as simple as “How was your Winter Break?”

“Well, I’m sorry for you man.” Red slapped him way too hard on the shoulder, trying desperately to comfort his friend. Ricky rubbed his arm in a vain attempt to relieve the stinging pain.

“It’s alright. I don’t think she was right for -” His attention suddenly shifted the back of a head, and he was suddenly struck with an overwhelming feeling of familiarity. Like it was some he knew. But he lost sight of them within the inordinately busy halls, and instead blinked, trying to regain his train of thought. 

He buried that feeling of familiarity, brushing it aside. So many people went to East High. It wouldn’t be foolish to brush something like that away and assume that every person you saw in the halls was a stranger.

Even if the one name that echoed in his mind; a frozen moment in time - started to grow ever persistent in haunting his thoughts like a ghost of a memory. Maybe her name had never been lost from his subconscious in the first place.

-

“You’re auditioning with me later, right?” Red had asked him as they traipsed over one of the expansive playing fields to get to the set of outdoor bleachers, where they’d decided to sit and eat their lunch today.

Ricky tilted his head. “I don’t know man.”

“You enjoyed it last year though.” That much was true. It had come as a welcome distraction for… _everything_ that happened last year. But the sheer amount of drama that came with it, the fact that he’d given EJ Caswell a bloody nose, whether accidentally or not, was enough to put him off the idea of doing it again.

He’d only joined for Nini last year. That wasn’t exactly doable this time around.

“I’ll go for moral support though. Is that good enough?” Red nodded excitedly as he peeled off a part of a cheese string. “I thought you were lactose intolerant?”

“Oh, I am.” He smiled, shoving one of the strips into his mouth. “But this is cheese, so it's okay.” Ricky frowned, questioning for a moment, but then remembered it was Red. He expected nothing less.

“What musical are they doing this year?” asked Ricky, as Red quickly swallowed down his food, clearly excited to tell his friend.

“Beauty and the Beast.” Red smiled widely.

“Tale as old as time huh?” Red nodded in response.

Ricky started absently-mindedly picking at blades of grass growing through the seats as Red started talking in-depth about how he’d planned to audition for the role of Lumiere, which included a brief sample of his French accent.

Ricky couldn’t help it. But she waltzed back into his mind. He couldn’t help but think about how happy she’d be if she was here, how excited she would be to start rehearsing. He didn’t know why she was the one his mind leaped to. 

_Maybe I should text her again,_ he thought. Not that he hadn’t tried. _I must've done something wrong._

-

“Not auditioning this time Ricky?” EJ smiled, crossing his arms over his body.

“Luckily enough, no,” Ricky said, rushing past him to sit next to Red.

“Okay, quickly people! We’ve got about-” Miss Jenn glanced down at her watch, “Ten minutes before the cheer squad needs to be in here so-”

The auditorium was still in the process of being rebuilt from _The Incident_ before Thanksgiving. So at least for now, they were sharing a space with some of the countless other after school activities that took place on campus.

Then, just like that auditions were in full swing. Rushing through just as quickly as they could. EJ auditioned for the Beast. Red did the tap routine he’d been rehearsing since the show had been first announced.

Just as quickly as they started, auditions wrapped up. Carlos promised that the cast list would be up as soon as possible, but that right now they had to get out of the auditorium as quickly as they could because soon the cheer squad would be barging through the door to practice whatever it was that cheer squads did.

Ricky waited behind for Red, who, as everyone else from the theatre department was already out the door, was still putting his normal non-tapping shoes onto his feet. 

“Come on, we’ve got to go.” Ricky groaned, trying to speed his friend up. But already, the chattering and giggling from the door to the gym had begun.

“You can’t rush perfection dude.”

“Red, it’s a pair of vans. Let’s just go, please?”

Ricky picked Red’s bag up for him, slinging it over his shoulders as Red still hobbled to get his left shoe to fit right on his foot.

“See, was that really that-” Ricky turned left straight out of the auditorium, but immediately collided with one of the cheerleaders as she laughed with one of her friends. 

She must’ve not seen him yet.

But Ricky had most definitely seen her. His eyes widened and panned her up and down and then looked right into her eyes. “Gi?”

She was wearing one of the red dresses he recognised as what the East High cheerleaders wore, and her hair was tightly pulled on top of her head and threaded with red and white ribbons.

“Ricky. Hi.” She smiled politely at him, but just as quickly as she had collided into him, she brushed past him, heading straight for the gym.

“You’re back?” He spun around and asked after her, watching her face with acute curiosity. She just hummed in response, barely even glancing back at him. “Also, you’re a cheerleader now?”

“Yep.” She said.

“Since when?” He asked her, and she shifted threatening to turn around. “I didn’t know you were the whole pom-poms and team spirit kind of person.”

Her friend had walked ahead of her, and though Red was waiting awkwardly behind Ricky it was just the two of them.

“There’s a lot you don’t know, Ricky.”

**Betty, one time I was riding on my skateboard when I passed your house, it’s like I couldn’t breathe.**

Green was the colour of the grass of the immaculately kept lawns as Ricky skated past, under the sepia of streetlamps and over the gaps between each of the paving slabs of which the sidewalk consisted of. The wheel shunted over every gap. The cold midwinter wind rushed past him violently, as though it had somewhere to be. He leaned into it, taking a deep breath as another wave of wind and light mist greeted his face. His foot pushed him on faster.

He was on the road to nowhere.

Some nights. Scratch that, most nights, he’d just leave his house, with nothing but his skateboard in hand go somewhere. Elsewhere. Anywhere but home.

This was one of those nights. 

Ordinarily, he would've inevitably ended up at Nini’s house, ended up wrapped in the arms of her Mums, and led to fall asleep on the couch. But that was impossible now.

He brushed a hand through his hair and adjusted the straps of the backpack which sat low on his back, and kicked off the ground again, speeding up the board and racing it as fast as he could, competing against the wind at its own game. Though now, at the speed at which he was careening over uneven pavements, the wind was flinging itself at his cheeks, stinging them as though it was inflicting thousands of tiny cuts upon his skin until the apples of his cheeks felt numb and sore from the cold.

Alas; he kept going.

Home was behind him now.

_Everything_ was behind him now. He pushed on.

But Gina was still playing on his mind.

When he’d left, his father was slumped - half asleep - on the couch in the front room, with a takeaway on his chest, and House reruns on an almost never-ending replay on the TV. His Mum? Well - who on Earth knew where she was. And he wasn’t about to pick up the phone and ask her.

He promised he’d call. But he’d barely spoken to her since opening night. He’d texted her on Christmas Day. She’d texted him back. That was it.

He kicked on again, watching as the amber lights and quick blurs of bright television screens hanging in windows flashed past him out of the corner of his eye.

His Dad hadn’t taken this whole thing well, in any sense of the word. He’d never seen a single person binge watch so many medical dramas in one sitting. It wouldn’t be long before he started one the police dramas and Ricky knew that there’d be no stopping him once he’d gotten onto Law and Order SVU. It was a dangerous path that led all the way down to Death in Paradise.

His Mum had clearly taken it at least slightly better than big Mike Bowen because she’d immediately gone out into the big wide city and found Todd. The very same Todd who Ricky had first seen in the crowd of faces on the opening night of High School Musical.

He shuddered.

That night; it was a lot. Seeing _her_ face again after not much longer than a week apart, but a week alone had felt like years. His mind had gone completely blank when he’d seen her that night. He hadn’t even known she was there that night until he’d seen her perform what she’d spent so many long rehearsal sessions practicing. In a way though, he’d imagined it, what the moment of seeing her face again, what he’d say to her if he were ever to see her again, but when it got down to it, he’d fumbled. Colossally tripped over his words.

Likely, something to do with the fact that out of all members of the Bowen family, he was probably the one taking this the worst of all.

When he’d scanned the crowd and seen his Mum and Todd amongst the faces, he’d completely fluffed. He knew it was unlikely, but some part of him, maybe the hopeless romantic part, who believed that every person had one counterpart, assumed that his parents would sort things out, and fall back together. But they hadn’t. And it was Todd’s face in the crowd that he’d seen. Just smiling up at him, like it was completely normal.

“Everything’s changing, and just when you think you’re used to it. It changes again.”

And of course. _Of course._ It _had_ to have been her he’d seen in the middle of it all. The girl he’d left alone in the changing room with just an “I don’t know what to say.” It had to have been her. It always was her. She found him, talked him down from the gallows.

Because she _got_ him. They _got_ each other. That’s just how they worked. 

He also knew how they were _before_. The stolen glances. The pauses in conversation that felt so immensely natural, like this was how it should. How it was meant to be. Yet this time. This time when he looked at her, all he could think of was what his Mum had said to him, mere moments before. 

“Not all couples are meant to be together.”

And this time when he looked at her, that’s all he could see. When she smiled at him and made him feel like everything would be okay again, all he could picture was how fleeting and agonisingly temporary this moment was. She’d left him once and at the end of the night, she’d be doing it all over again. Words she’d said to him still rang out like bells within his mind. But she’d be gone soon. 

Before she left the first time, she said she’d text. She’d said they’d facetime, like the endless nights they’d spent talking about nothing and everything until their bodies demanded they sleep and they’d have to walk into the school the next day running on nothing but coffee and memories of the night before.

She hadn’t.

Not a single text. Nothing since the night from the Del Rey theatre, when she’d told him “Sorry, we had to leave a day early.”

And he doubted she’d do it again this time.

So he saved whatever words he’d been meaning to say to her. 

And he’d told them to Nini instead.

Every person had one counterpart, right? His heart had decided long ago that it would be Nini. Maybe.

Whatever. He’d known that night that Nini reminded him of _before_. Maybe that’s why he’d told Nini those things that night. Because she was in all the memories he had before everything that had happened. She was the one constant in his life.

He kicked on again, harder this time, speeding up the board even faster, and the wind thrashed ever more violent against his cheeks.

But now things had switched.

Gina was the one back in his life again, whilst Nini was the one who was now living almost eight hours away from him. 

Not that she looked as happy to see him as she did on opening night. Something was off with her. It was different this time around. She’d all but blanked him. She might as well have done.

And she was at cheerleader tryouts. He knew there was no way for her to balance both the upcoming show _and_ cheer practice. She’d made her decision.

He pushed off again.

Was it something he’d done? He didn’t want to make assumptions. But he thought it must be. He must’ve been why she’d tried out for cheer instead of theatre again. _Somehow_ , he thought, _it must be my fault._

She must’ve heard something. Something had to have been the matter. She was so blunt with him. Maybe, when she took a step back and watched, he should have read the look on her face properly.

Not that he blamed her.

Again, he kicked off from the pavement, letting the roads lead him to wherever.

He slowed down as a car pulled out from the drive just before him. On a night like this one, where the streets were void of activity and practically silent, he could see and hear everything that was happening.

A cricket chirped from one of the blades of grass from one of the lawns beside him. The car, with its headlights at full beam - temporarily blinding him as it pulled out of the drive and made its way down the main road, heading to the larger and louder main road into the city, just at the end of this road.

He kicked off again, blind in the dark as his eyes took a moment to become adjusted to the darker surroundings after having just had headlights glare directly into his eyes.

As he became more aware of what was happening around him, he realised that he vaguely recognised the fronts of the houses that lined the streets with their expansive driveways leading right onto the house fronts.

He kicked on once more, feeling the pavement rumble through the wheels of his skateboard and up into his feet.

Yeah - he most definitely knew this place from somewhere. It was only when his skateboard came to a grinding halt in front of a driveway, that he realised where he remembered it from.

It was _her_ house. And by her he meant, it was Gina’s. At least her old house. He’d heard from Red that she was staying with the Caswells until the end of the year. Something, whether that be muscle memory, a mysterious force or simple coincidence, had led him here. 

Memories of that night burnt like a deep scar into his memory. Even upon the skin on his cheeks, where her lips had met his skin.

She’d forced him home early from Homecoming that night, but he was ever grateful for it. They’d spent the rest of the night, a massive length of time he couldn’t even count, sat in that car. Just talking. Something he’d never done with Gina before. And though it was nearing midnight, and the only light illuminating them was coming from the repetitive flash of Gina’s Mum calling her back in, that night, Ricky saw Gina in a whole other light. Like she’d shed the persona and was just _her_.

He sat down on the skateboard, and just sat there, watching as his breath twisted and turned like smoke up into the air above him. Then, he took a deep and stuttering breath in. 

**You heard the rumours from Inez, you can’t believe a word she says, most times, but this time it was true.**

One the walk into school the next morning, he hadn’t let anything slip. He hadn’t told Red about how much he’d been thinking about how she’d reacted to seeing him again.

Her face followed him everywhere he went. Words she’d told him, words he’d mulled over so many times still stuck with him. But she hadn’t spoken to him.

He went to lunch with Red, just as he always did. They sat down at the same table they always did, and he sat next to Red, just as he always did.

Red looked over Ricky’s shoulder to an oncoming surge of people, before looking back at Ricky, slightly cowering over his lunch. “Don’t look now but-”

Ricky ignored him and looked. Right as he did so, the Caswells walked past and, lagging ever so slightly behind them with a smile bright on her face as she listened in on EJ and Ashlyn’s conversation, was Gina, her hands grasping upon a lunch tray. Abruptly he stood up, standing right in her path. “Gina!”

Her face fell as soon as her eyes landed upon him, her smile turning to a scowl. “Ricky. Hi.” She smiled politely, as though she was pretending he hadn’t seen the way her face had faltered when she looked at him.

“So, are you going to tell me what you’re doing back here, or?” He smiled at her.

She opened her mouth but hesitated like she was formulating an excuse in her mind. Until ultimately, Ashlyn had run back from the table where EJ was sitting glaring holes through the back of Ricky’s head and pulled Gina away.

“Bye,” was all he managed to get out before Ashlyn led her away, their arms interlocking as she whispered something in her ear.

He watched her leave.

He risked a glance over Red’s shoulder to where she was sitting at one of the tables, still with the theatre kids. Now Carlos was speaking too, as Seb wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He watched as her eyes threatened to glance between her friends surrounding her and then to Ricky.

Throughout lunch, Ricky continually risked taking fleeting glances back at the table where everyone was sat. Her arm was still interlocked with Ashlyn’s. She was staring into the distance, away from whatever conversation her friends were having.

Red waved Ricky back into the present. “Anyway, my paediatrician said it was probably the pickles.” He nodded like he was imparting a piece of otherworldly wisdom before he noticed the look on Ricky’s face. “Are you okay?”

Ricky leaned on his hands, letting himself look at her once more. At least she was laughing now. It was the first time he’d seen her properly happy since Thanksgiving. “Do you think she knows?”

“Knows about what?” Red asked, picking at one of the fries on his tray.

Ricky looked back over his shoulder, looking to where Gina was sitting. Her eyes made contact with his, and her face dropped again. But immediately she sat upright, smiling as she turned back to continue laughing with Ashlyn.

“I think she knows,” Ricky said, rubbing his hands over his face.

“Why does it matter?” Said Red, an almost knowing look on his face.

“It doesn’t,” he glanced ahead. Gina was glaring straight at him, “But I do care what she thinks of me.” Red nodded slowly at him but ended up frowning as he tried to grasp the words Ricky was saying, which even to Ricky himself sounded like pure bullshit as they left his mouth. “What?”

“What do you mean what?” Red asked.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Red shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just weird.”

“What’s weird?”

“How much you care about her opinion on things.”

Ricky waved Red away. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

“I never said it did.”

-

“She knows,” Red told him.

Ricky and Red sat in the booth seat at Red’s parent’s pizza place.

“What do you mean she knows?” He knew what Red meant as soon as he’d said it. 

“I _mean_ she knows.” Red picked at the straw of the drink in front of him. 

He groaned. “Well, how does she know?”

“Ricky. You can’t act like she wasn’t going to find out sooner or later. Practically the entire school knows.” Red laughed. “EJ Caswell’s going to kick your ass.” He looked up at Ricky’s wholly unimpressed expression. “Look what even happened between you two?”

Ricky shook his head. “Nothing. She’s been off with me since the night she came back and -”

(He didn’t add the part about not saying anything to her, even when it seemed like something lingered there, unspoken between the two of them.)

Red dipped one of his chips into his milkshake. “And you got back with Nini?”

Ricky groaned again, putting his head flat into the table. “I don’t know why I care so much about what she thinks of me.”

Red mumbled something under his breath. Ricky sat up in his seat and glared at him. “Ricky, you just need to talk to her.”

He shook his head. He wouldn’t know what to say to her. Part of him assumed he should apologise. Not that he’d put the puzzle pieces together to figure out what for just yet. “I don’t know man. I guess, I thought she was gone. Like forever. But now she’s back and she’s here and she’s real and she’s-”

“Scary?” Red asked.

“No. Never scary.”

“She scares me a little bit.”

“Then I guess you just don’t know her like I do.” 

**Betty, I know where it all went wrong, your favourite song was playing from the far side of the gym.**

They were in the gym again. Red and the rest of the cast were rehearsing their lines on stage and Ricky sat in the corner, casually coating one of the prop candles in a thick layer of white paint. The auditorium and stage _still_ hadn’t been rebuilt since the fire (Miss Jenn mentioned something about waning finances after the harness they’d used in the last Musical), so for now and as far as they knew, until opening night of Beauty and the Beast, this is where they were camped out.

The school gym. A small space that had managed to be shared between three extra-curricular clubs all at the same time.

In the furthest corner was the theatre lot, which included Red practicing a tap solo Carlos had choreographed for him and Ashlyn belting out one of Mrs. Potts’ solos and Kourtney and EJ waltzing across their corner. It also included Ricky, sitting on the slightly apart from the rest of them painting whichever props people threw in his direction.

Taking up the majority of the space was the overly loud and obnoxious basketball team running drills and throwing balls in every which direction.

The last group was the cheerleaders, who’d splayed mats out in their section and were tumbling across them one person at a time, as the others whooped whenever one of them stuck their landing. It’s where, every so often and almost inexplicably so (at least to him), Ricky’s eyes would be drawn.

When he looked, it was Gina he saw, smiling and smiling with her new friends like he’d never seen her do before. It was Gina who was stepping up to the long trail of mats. She launched herself into a cartwheel, and as though she was almost ignoring gravity itself, she threw herself into a series of tumbles and turns and twists and Ricky just watched.

Her eyes caught his when she stuck the landing and threw her hands above her head. Her face fell when she looked at him, but she straightened herself up and yelled across the room at him. “Take a picture. It’ll last longer.” She flipped him off as she trotted back to her group of giggling friends.

His eyes flicked back to her. She was still giggling, maybe about what she’d said, maybe about something else, but it made something flash across his mind. If someone had asked him when she’d left how he’d feel upon seeing her again, annoyance would have been the last emotion on his list.

But having felt her brush past him, knowing she was ignoring the concerned messages he’d spent so many nights typing out to her was only just swelling that feeling within him. _Why can’t it be how it was before she left_ , he thought. He had to remind himself that the status-quo had changed.

Ricky huffed. This wasn’t her. It wasn’t the level-headed Gina who’d given him compelling advice of what to do so many times in the past. Or maybe it was. Before Homecoming, she would’ve jumped at the chance to make a snidey remark at him under her breath. When they were strangers.

Maybe they were back to that point. Maybe, even after everything, Ricky and Gina were no more than strangers.

-

The whole school had packed onto the bleachers out in the gym, as the ever waning light of the setting sun ebbed in through the windows. Reluctantly, (because ideally, he wouldn’t have been here at all), Ricky found himself there too, watching as the two teams, East High vs West High, Wildcats vs Knights, Red vs Purple, had already begun to clash.

Ricky had pulled Red right to the back, the furthest he could get away from the constant jeering and unnecessary aggression. But stood right at the front of the stand, stood in the front of a line of twirling East High cheerleaders was Gina, decked out in the same red dress and red and white pom poms as the other cheerleaders, and smiling just as brightly as he’d ever seen her.

The crowd taunted and whooped with every tackle, every pass, and even more so with every basket scored by each team. Insults were even managed to be flung from the red crowd of East High students to the crowd of West High students sat on the bleachers on the other side of the gym. Signs of insults were being held above people’s heads, including by Red, who’s sign announced very simply, that West High stank of an indiscernible smell.

But Ricky was barely paying attention to it. It hadn’t even registered in his mind. He couldn’t ever ascertain what the score was. Because his eyes were evermore on Gina, dancing an intricate dance, one he’d seen her rehearse over and over again. And it was all to a song he swore he had heard before. He knew for certain he’d heard it before as the melody begun to swell.

As she leaped up, twirling in the air as she flipped and waving the balls of iridescent glitter in her hands, Ricky remembered where he knew the melody from.

It had been the night of Homecoming when they’d first properly talked. Not that they hadn’t spoken before. But was nothing more than snide remarks directed at each other. Homecoming was where it clicked. Where they had understood each other and realised that out of everyone in the theatre department, they had each other.

And it was when she had invited herself home with him, not nearly as confident as he’d seen her at rehearsals. When she’d slowly strode into his car and sat down in the passenger seat. Then she’d gone quiet and gazed out of the window at the passing street lights, before gently turning to him and so quietly, like a version of herself she’d never let anyone before see, ask if she could have the aux to play music as they drove to her house.

It had been this song.

A song which sounded so gentle and languid coming from the speakers in his car, now sounded so upbeat and blaring as it blasted from the loudspeakers around the pitch.

A song which so now so confidently danced to, in sync with the other cheerleaders. 

But Ricky was looking only at Gina.

**I was nowhere to be found, I hate the crowds you know that, plus I saw you dance with him.**

So apparently East High had won, because the sea of red that surrounded him had suddenly gone feral, throwing hands and signs and anything they could get their hands onto high into the air, screaming like they’d won the World Cup. The infamous derby had gone the way of the Wildcats. Not that Ricky had noticed. His mind was everywhere but the match that had taken place.

Something about hearing that song again - it launched him back. And it was Gina he was thinking of.

The crowd seemed to empty with the rows of people in front of them beginning to empty. The cheer squad and victorious basketball team stayed in the middle of the court, even as the crowd surrounding them began to thin.

There was a single body of purple amongst the bodies of red. And he stood right next to Gina. 

Red got up to leave. Ricky didn’t.

She twirled a loose strand of her hair around her finger and laughing at what - judging by just how hard she was laughing - must have been a very funny joke.

Red flopped back down beside Ricky. “How long are you going to spend pining after that girl from afar?”

Ricky rolled his eyes. “I’m not pining. I’m watching.”

“Watching, pining, same difference.” He grabbed ahold of Ricky’s wrist and yanked. “Let’s go, my Dad already put the pizza in the oven.” Ricky barely shifted. Red sighed. “Okay, enjoy your burnt pizza.”

Ricky sat back and watched, even as more and more people started to leave, including Red. He watched as the boy dressed in purple, with a mop of curly black hair on top of his head, told Gina something, which resulted in her smiling widely and reaching to one of the bags tucked beneath the bleachers, and pulling out a speaker.

She put on the song he’d seen them all dance to during the match, the one Gina had played that night his car. She said something to the dark-haired boy dressed in purple, saying it close to his ear because of the blaring of the music. Then, she pulled him into the group of cheerleaders, slowly going through the moves of the dance they’d done during the game.

The boy picked up on it quite quickly, carefully following the moves Gina was showing him before she grabbed a hold of his hands and spun around with him dancing to the music.

Ricky clambered down the stairs, speeding up to catch up with Red as the music started to get louder inside his head. 

He threatened to glance back over his shoulder, to look back at her. Even though she was still spinning around with the West High boy, her eyes caught his across the room.

**You heard the rumours from Inez you can’t believe a word she says, most times, but this time it was true.**

Gina tapped her pencil on the desk in their biology classroom. Ricky turned his head to look at her through Red, who was sitting between the two of them. They hadn’t chosen their seats. Just unlucky.

Something about hearing that song again, but seeing her dance to it with someone else… it was like something was compelling him to make the first move. To be the one to break the uncomfortable silence that clung to the air around them.

So as Mr. Mazzara stood in front of the classroom explaining the functions of the different veins in the body, Ricky tore off a corner and scribbled a single word upon it.

_Hi._

He passed it along the table to her, without looking away from the board at the front of the room. He felt something fall in front of him. When he looked down his note had been rolled up into a ball, and Gina had wrapped her chewing gum within it. He looked back up he was greeted by Gina’s middle finger, shot straight at him.

He tried again. He tore another corner from the notepad in front of him, and scribbled another note onto it, and passed it back across Red’s table and in her direction.

This time, he heard her turn to Red. “Can you please tell your friend that I’m currently trying to focus on the circulatory system please.”

Red turned to Ricky. “Gina said to -“

Ricky nodded. “Yeah, I heard her.”

He took another corner of his notepad, tearing it away and writing on it.

_What gives?_ He flicked it across to Gina. 

He heard her huff in frustration, but sure enough, the next time he looked down, his note had been returned to him, folded up more neatly than when he had passed it to her.

_No._

_What’s wrong?_

_You’re so arrogant, and for what? So another ukelele girl can archive her confession of love to you?_

She was not holding back. The note was getting crammed full of words, but he continued to write nonetheless.

_I’m the arrogant one? Gi, you haven’t spoken a word to me since opening night. I come back after Christmas and here you are._

She ignored it.

_I thought out of everyone, you could at least tell me about it._

She ignored it again. He sighed.

_I saw you cheer._

This time she responded, flicking it back at him just as Mr. Mazzara began to talk about the function of glands and hormones.

_So did the rest of the school Ricky._

_You were really good! Just like you are at everything else._

He watched as she read over the words, but she took no notice of them and screwed it back up in the corner of her desk.

He ripped another corner from his notebook. 

_Why won’t you talk to me Gi? :((_

He underlined the frowny face twice, for added emphasis. She huffed and threw the scrap of paper back at him.

_Why do you care?_

_Because we get each other Gi. :))_

When he heard her head hit the table, presumably in frustration, he guessed that “Because we get each other” probably wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear.

She ignored it.

_Talk to me._

She ignored it again.

_Please Gi :(_

He watched as her eyes scanned it and her brow furrowed, and then she reached for it, rolled it up into a ball, and turned to look straight into his eyes as she threw it to the bin to the bin at the very front of the classroom.

A group of boys sat right at the back of the class started to snigger from behind them, and Ricky watched as Gina winced as she pulled her eyes away from him to look at Mr. Mazzara, who held up the note. 

“Something you care to share with the class?”

She stood up in her chair. “Sir, it wasn’t me, Ricky kept sending me these notes and-”

Ricky stood up after her. “Yeah, this wasn’t Gi’s fault.” She glared at him under her lashes. “This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t... if we,” his voice lowered as he looked down to his feet, coming to a quiet conclusion within his mind. He swallowed heavily. “If I hadn’t written her the notes.”

Mr. Mazzara nodded, looking wholly unimpressed. “Funnily enough, I’m not a fan of the Spartacus trope, so congratulations Miss Porter, you’ll be joining me for detention after school.”

Gina groaned. “But Sir, I have cheer practice after school tonight-”

Ricky spoke up. “What about me? She wouldn’t have thrown it if I hadn't written her the note.” She glared at him again.

Mr. Mazzara shook his head. “Yes, Mr. Bowen, but you didn’t throw it into my face.” Gina sat back down in her seat, defeated. Quickly, Ricky leaned forward to his notepad and grabbed another scrap of paper. He scrunched it into a ball and, as hard as he could, launched it right at Mazzara’s head.

When Mazzara turned back around, a scowl on his face, Ricky smiled impishly. “How about now?”

Mazzara kissed his teeth. “It appears you’ve found yourself a knight in shining armour, Miss Porter. Both of you will be in this class for detention after school today. Anyways, so, the function of oxytocin-” She gave him a dirty look as he took his turn to sit back down in his seat.

-

Gina walked in, walking straight past him onto a seat several rows behind him and dumping her bag onto the ground beside her. Mazzara stood at the front of the classroom, his arms folded over his chest.

“I’ve got Robotics Class two classrooms down, so you two are going to sit here until it’s finished. That clear?”

Ricky nodded. When he walked out to go to Robotics Club, Ricky threatened a glance back at Gina. She was staring holes into the back of his head. “This is your fault.” She told him, stubborn as usual.

“Did I not say that earlier?” She stayed silent. He scraped his chair around so he was facing her. “Gi, can you just talk to me please?”

"There’s nothing to talk about Ricky.” Gina crossed her arms and leaned back in the seat, folding her legs on top of each other.

He turned back around. “Clearly there is, considering you didn’t even tell me that you’d come back.”

She huffed. “ _That’s_ what you’re annoyed about?”

He spun around in this seat. “What else would I be annoyed about?” 

“God, you’re so arrogant,” she snapped, “Can you even hear yourself speak sometimes?”

He tilted his head at her. She stared him down, straight into his eyes. 

“What went wrong, Gi?”

She sighed as she spoke. “Nothing? Everything?”

Ricky smiled warmly at her. “Whatever it is Gi. You can tell me.”

She shook her head. The slightest of smiles played on her lips. “Not this.”

“Well,” he sat back around, but kept his eyes on her as he looked at her over his shoulder, “If it was anything that _I_ did,” he sighed, “I’m sorry.”

He hadn’t even apologised after the Homecoming incident, where, for a reason he still couldn’t comprehend, he snapped at her out of the blue. Maybe that was why it was different. Maybe that was why her stare softened around the edge. Because he hadn’t said those words to her before, no matter how many times he’d fucked up before.

That smile that played along her lips ever so slightly grew as he turned back around to face the front of the classroom once more. He heard her sigh. “I can’t believe I’m about to do this.” The chair screeched as she shifted upon it, and she heaved her gym bag upon her shoulder until she plonked it onto the ground beside her as she heaved herself into one of the tall stools beside Ricky. “Hi.” She said quietly. Just as he was about to speak, she held a finger up to him. “This is your last chance though. Just know that.”

_It would be nice to know what he did the first time_ , he thought. But he ignored it, letting the smile that emerged on his face when she took her place next to him take over his whole body. Gina had that kind of effect on people. 

She still sat how she had before; with her arms crossed over her chest, leaned back in the chair, and with her legs folded on top of each other, as one of them bounced up and down under the table. Her eyes weren’t on his. She held her chin up as she looked straight forward.

“So,” she turned to look at him as he began, “You like blondes now?”

Gina laughed. The first time he’d laughed with her since Thanksgiving night before she’d left. 

She looked down at her feet as she laughed. “Ricky don’t-”

He smiled up at her under his eyelashes. “No, it’s okay. I just thought your type was more, you know, curly-haired, brunette, owns a bright orange car. Five letter name, maybe? Starts with R, ends with Icky?”

She laughed. They fell into silence again. But it was a comfortable kind. The type where they could just be in each other’s presence without even needing to talk to fill the gaps. Gina still fiddled with the back of her fingers though. She always did when she was nervous, and Ricky always picked up on the subtlety of it.

“Hey, leave him alone,” she said through laughter, “James is actually really sweet.”

“Has he played a perfect acoustic version of the best song from the original High School Musical though?” He asked, tilting his head at her.

“Admittedly, not yet.”

They laughed again.

-

“So,” she stood before him, playing with her fingers, barely having the confidence to look straight into his eyes. This was the kind of Gina he knew. Not the “scary” one, not the “mean” one. This was Gina. The Gina who always played with her nails as a direction for her nervousness, the one that went quiet, voice barely above a whisper when she tried to talk to him. “Thank you for the apology.”

He smiled at her. “Thanks for the second chance.” 

His hands tucked into his jeans as they walked side-by-side towards the car park. “Hey, I can give you a lift home if you want?” He dangled his keys by his head. “I know it’s the orange buggy again, but-”

She grinned at him but turned her head towards the road which led into the car park. “Actually…”

A red sports car with an all too loud exhaust pulled into the car park, beeping loudly as it passed by where Gina stood and turned around. She scratched the back of her head. “Yeah, that’s me.”

The boy in the car, presumably James shouted out at her. “Alright?”

Gina turned to Ricky. “Thank you for the offer though.”

He chirped. “So he’s a trust fund baby?”

She looked back at Ricky as she crossed the road into the passenger seat of the car. “Bye Ricky.” She laughed.

-

“Then we just… you know, _spoke_. But then she got into a car with that West High guy from the game. James? I don’t see it honestly.”

Red and Ricky were sitting in a booth seat in Red’s family’s pizza place, as they usually did at least once a week, and they were talking about Gina, _again_ , something which had been happening ever more frequently in the past few weeks.

Red held a slice of pepperoni pizza to his mouth, but Ricky, having just ended his in-depth storytime about what had happened between him and Gina during detention, prompted him to put it down with a huff. “Ricky, I can’t get through one slice without you bringing her up.”

Ricky stayed silent, glaring at his friend as he grabbed his slice of pizza, partly so he didn’t have to verify Red’s statement with an answer.

If he was being honest, he’d felt it too. Gina had been occupying more of his thoughts, more his dreams. And though Red had long ago, Ricky still hadn’t made the connection within his mind.

Coincidentally enough, Gina, joined by the Caswells were here too, laughing heartily as they sat around one giant dish of pizza. Gina was laughing too, and it was like she was illuminating the entire room just with the act of smiling, and she looked so happy. Ricky shook his head, ignoring whatever swelling feeling, one he still hadn’t identified within himself.

“Hey guys, can I get you anything else?” The waiter, the one that only seconds before had been laughing with the rest of the Caswells, had walked up alongside Ricky’s table, notepad in hand.

Ricky shifted uncomfortably under his collar, looking to Red. Red tilted his head. “Two sundaes?”

Ricky nodded, trying to sit comfortably in his seat. As soon as Howie headed off to get them their ice-cream, Ricky excused himself. “Be right back.”

Two toilets were pitched on either side of a narrow hallway. And right when he stepped foot into that hallway, Gina headed out from one of the toilets, widening her eyes when she realised who was standing in front of her. “Oh, Ricky. Hi.” She smiled softly at him.

“Hi.” He said back at her, voice barely above a whisper.

They stood there for a moment, entrapped in the corridor. Gina fiddled with her fingers. “I should-”

Ricky shook himself back into the here and now. “Yeah, of course.” He moved to the side to let her past, but she stepped in the same direction, leaving them just where they had begun. “You first.” She stepped back.

“No, you first.” He said. But when he stepped forward she, again, accidentally stepped in the wrong direction. She laughed out a breath. “Sorry.”

He smiled down at his feet. “I’ll go left, and then you go right. Right?” She nodded.

They moved again, and still somehow managed to collide straight into each other. She laughed, placing a hand to her forehead. “I thought you meant my right.”

“Wait, if I just-” Ricky placed his hands on her shoulders, holding her in place as he moved around her, managing to get himself into the hallway. “That took way too long.” He laughed, reaching to scratch the back of his head.

“Yeah.” She mumbled under her breath. When she walked back to her table, Ricky turned and looked over his shoulder, and when he saw her, she was doing the very same.

**But if I just showed up at your party, would you have me, would you want me? Would you tell me to go fuck myself?**

As came an upcoming dance, so did the inane questioning of who everyone was taken. Including that which Red directed towards Ricky one lunchtime.

“So,” he said, chewing on canteen food, “Who are you gonna take?”

They sat at their same table, one which left Ricky and Gina sitting on opposite sides of the canteen but facing each other.

Ricky hummed, thinking for a moment before speaking. “Lauryn maybe?” He looked at the blonde girl who sat next to Gina, twirling her hair around one finger.

Red did a double-take, looking over his shoulder at the blonde girl, back to Ricky and vice-versa. He frowned. “The blonde girl?”

Ricky nodded. “What’s wrong with Lauryn?” Red squinted at him, looking at him like he was an idiot.

“There’s nothing wrong with Lauryn, she’s just,” he thought for a moment, “Not who I was expecting.”

Ricky tilted his head. “Well, who were you expecting?”

Red waved him off. “Yeah, you know what? Doesn’t matter.”

“Alright then.” He pushed himself off the table and started to walk away.

Red watched as Ricky stepped away from their table and began walking to the one which housed the cheerleaders. He reached out. “Hey, dude, just stop and think for a moment.”

“Okay.” Ricky paused, for the briefest of moments. “I've thunk. I’m gonna ask Lauryn to the dance.”

Red slapped his forehead.

He had thought about it. He’d spent so long, preoccupied with it. But he wasn’t thinking about how Lauryn would react when he’d ask her, he barely knew the girl. All he could think about was how Gina would react when he walked over and asked Lauryn. It was like he was doing it to provoke something out of Gina like he wanted to see that spark of fire. Yet, within himself, he still couldn’t put his finger on why.

Why was it Gina that he was thinking about? Why were his eyes fixated on Gina’s when he walked straight up to their lunch table?

“Bowen.” She nodded at him.

He nodded back. “Porter.”

He lifted an eyebrow at her because he knew what he was about to do. And for whatever reason (the parts of the puzzle hadn’t yet pieced together within his mind), he did it deliberately in front of her. 

“What are you doing?” She leaned forward, resting her head on her hands as she looked at him with a glint of curiosity within her eyes.

“I’m actually here to ask an important question.” This time Gina raised her eyebrow, sitting back in her chair, her arms crossed across her chest all the while.

“What do you -” She sat forward, her eyes widening as if she had realised something. Her eyes glanced at one of the posters above announcing the date of the upcoming dance. “Ricky, you shouldn’t-”

Ricky smiled, waving a hand in the air. “Don’t worry. I know you and dates to dances don’t exactly mix.” He smiled at her, before turning his gaze to the girl in the same dress, but with starkly straight blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail on her head. Gina mumbled something under her breath, something he didn’t quite catch, and then he asked her the question. “Lauryn, do you want to-”

Lauryn pulled him straight into a hug before he could even finish asking her to the dance. And even as Lauryn’s head sat on his shoulder, even as her lengths of blonde hair flicked into his face, Ricky’s eyes were on Gina’s.

-

Even on the night of the dance, as he sat in his car waiting outside Lauryn’s house, he couldn’t wrap his mind around just why his eyes had fallen to Gina’s. It was something that played on his mind a lot. Like Gina in and of herself.

And still when they got to the school gym, which was decked out in blue and yellow streamers, and balloons of any and every colour. Even more so when Lauryn’s arms wrapped around him to take pictures right as they entered the bustling gym,

“So,” he took a sip of his drink as they sat down at one of the tables which encircled the border of the gym, “Did Gina say if she was coming?”

Lauryn rolled her eyes. “Who cares what Gina is doing. You’re here with me.” She elbowed him. It didn’t feel at all the same as whenever Gina elbowed him. “Look, let’s just dance alright?” She stood straight up, pushing the chair away from her and grabbing at Ricky’s hand.

Reluctantly, he stood up after her, as she pulled him into the huddle of moving bodies, who shifted with every beat that played. Until his eyes fell upon her. Her arm interlinked with another’s.

James’.

Gina stood in the archway of the gym. Her body was clothed with a yellow dress, and it matched the tie of the boy from before, the one he’d seen pick her up in the setting sun after detention.

Though Lauryn was pulling him to dance with her and Lauryn’s arms were draped around his neck, it was Gina’s whose eyes caught with his across the crowded room.

-

“Bowen.” She smiled up at him under lashes.

“Porter.” He smiled back, taking a sip of his drink.

They languidly hung around the outskirts of the gym as everyone else had gathered into a circle on the dancefloor.

“Enjoying your night?” She turned around, resting her arms on the refreshment table.

He nodded, raising his eyebrows. “James seems nice.”

Gina hummed. “Yeah… he is.” She launched herself up onto the table beside Ricky. “Lauryn seems nice too.”

“You’re her friend, you tell me.” She mumbled under her breath again, something Ricky didn't catch. He set his drink down beside him and turned to look at Gina. “I thought you said you didn’t do dates though.”

Gina laughed under her breath. “Yeah, well. Things change.”

They looked at each other for a moment, as the flashing lights of the party danced across their faces. 

Gina huffed like she suddenly found her words and spoke. “I’ve barely seen you dance all night.”

Ricky ran a hand through his hair, taking one last swig from his drink. “I think we all know that me and dancing don’t exactly mix.” She laughed at him, nodding in agreement as her eyes looked over the dance.

Quickly and suddenly the beat changed, and he heard Gina gasp from beside him.

It was That Song. The one she’d played in the car after Homecoming, the one she’d danced to at the game those weeks ago. Placing her cup down, she launched herself off the table and spun around, grabbing at Ricky’s hands.

“Well, now you _have_ to dance.”

Ricky planted himself, shaking his head. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Gi-”

“Come on! It’ll be fun.” She said, pulling on his hands again. She pouted, jutting her bottom lip out. “For me?”

He rolled his eyes. Then he shifted off the table, letting her take him. “For you.” He mumbled.

-

A distinctly slower song than the others that had been played throughout the night began to play, and immediately Lauryn’s arms were wrapped around his neck once more.

Gina was dancing immediately opposite him and Lauryn. Her arms were wrapped around James’ neck. But her eyes were on Ricky.

Even when Lauryn rested her neck on Ricky’s chest. Gina was the one he was watching under the glistening lights of the party.

It was Gina.

In a way, it always had been. Watching her dance with _him_ , the cogs finally started to whirr away in his mind.

**I’m only seventeen, I don’t know anything. But I know I miss you.**

The sepia light flooded around them, bathing them in the light from above. Gina’s face was in his hands.

She looked up at him, watching his eyes expectantly, waiting for something. Anything.

“Gi,” He whispered, his voice so quiet in the silence. “I think-”

She smiled gently, tilting her head at him. “You talk too much.” She bridged the gap between them, putting her lips on his.

When Ricky awoke in the darkness, he was flopped down on his bed, still fully clothed in the suit he’d worn to the dance. 

He had this innate habit of running. Maybe he was carrying on the family legacy, one that his Mum started when she’d legged it to Chicago seemingly out of the blue.

He looked up at the clock on his bedside table. 02:12 am.

He picked up his skateboard from where it was laying in the corner of his room, and under the darkness of night, he left his house.

-

Ricky was at the skatepark. Alone. Again.

In a way, it had slowly become his safe place. Somewhere he could hide when shit got real. Most nights, he didn’t even skate. He just watched as the stars danced their infinite waltz above his head.

The cool wind of the early summer passed through his curls as he collapsed back against the concrete at the top of one of the tallest ramps in the park.

“Ricky.” The quiet sigh of a voice shattered the illusion of silence and sent him sitting straight up to search the darkness for the source of a voice he recognised. One that was so deeply ingrained into every fibre of his being. Straight in front of him, with her arms wrapped around herself as she stood across the sea of concrete between them, was Gina. “Hi.”

She didn’t need to ask him the question in the silence. She just took a deep breath and a step forward. He knew what she was asking, and straight away he shifted himself to the side, making a space for her to sit beside him.

She joined him at the top of the ramp, dangling her feet over the edge. She just breathed. They sat in almost silence together.

Ricky turned to look at her, watching as the subdued lights of the night, of streetlamps and the headlights of cars driving past danced over her face. “What brings you here tonight?”

She looked straight ahead. “Do I need a reason?”

He tilted his head at her. She sighed. “Alright, you got me.” She fell backward onto the concrete behind her. “I broke up with James.” Ricky joined her, leaning back. “I couldn’t lie to him anymore.”

“Lie to him about what?”

She took a deep breath and he watched as her chest rose sharply. “It doesn’t matter right now.” She turned to face him, resting her head on one of her hands. “It’s just, I’ve had a hard time adjusting, you know? I didn’t even know if you’d care if I came back.”

Ricky rolled over too, so he was facing her entirely. “Of course I cared. It’s you Gi.” She looked away. But he watched the slightest of smiles play on the corner of her lips.

“Well, it certainly didn’t look like it.” She sighed. “That entire plane ride, I was dreaming about what would happen when you saw my face again. I was going to tell you, Ricky. I really was. But then I saw you with Nini.” She shifted, turning her head so she was looking at him once more. “I - I don’t know.”

“You saw that?” He cringed.

She laughed, once more shattering the stillness of the skatepark. “Very dramatic from what I heard.”

When the blush in his cheeks and Gina’s giggling subdued, he spoke again. “I just -” He looked up at the stars overhead, searching them for an answer. “- Everything happened so quickly, I guess I just didn’t-”

“- Know what to say, right?”

He sighed. Then he nodded. Because she was right. Of course, she was right. When was Gina Porter ever wrong?

She was playing with her fingers, looking down at them as she prepared herself to talk. “But I do know what to say.”

His head snapped around, and his eyes made contact with hers. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She nodded, sucking in a breath as she shifted on the concrete. “You should come to EJ’s party.”

This time, he shifted under the collar of his shirt. “I don’t know Gi. I don’t think EJ likes me enough to tolerate me for a whole night. Did I ever tell you about when I gave him a bloody nose?”

She smiled up at the sky. “I refuse to believe that Bowen.” Then she turned to him, looking him straight in the eyes. “Don’t listen to what EJ has to say. I’ve never heard a single person chat so much shit in my life. Besides,” she elbowed him gently and nudged his leg with her knee, “You’ll be my plus one.” Refluffing her hair, she sat up, looking back down at him. “Just think about it, okay?”

She slid down the ramp, heading back across the flat expanse of concrete. He watched her leave. Just as she reached the gate, she hesitated, at the last moment. “And Ricky?” His head snapped up to look at her, as she looked at him back over her shoulder. “I missed you.”

**Betty, I’m here on your doorstep, and I planned it out for weeks now, but it’s finally sinking in.**

When Ricky had told Red the next day, about how he’d finally put the pieces together as well as about what Gina had told him, the only thing Red said was “Told you so!” followed by “What have I been telling you for the six months?” Of course, Red had been right about everything.

Even so, Red still sat with him the whole day acting like his hype-man to entirely plan out what would happen when their eyes caught in the middle of the party. They rehearsed the words he’d meant to tell her opening night. Words which, over the period from Christmas Break to now, had been lost in translation.

“Just, you know, tone it down from how you’d told Nini?” 

Ricky ran his hand through his hair. “Tone it down by how much?” He held his hands apart.

“More,” Red said, so Ricky widened his hands. “More.” He said again, and Ricky followed his instructions. “More.”

Ricky rolled his eyes. “Just tell me when to stop, right?” Slowly his hands inched apart, and Red only cried out “Stop!” when his hands were well over a foot apart.

Ricky grimaced. “Was it that bad?”

“Dude, just be cas’ about it.” Red shrugged.

“Cas’?” Red nodded.

“Short for casual. Just act like it’s, you know, whatever. Cas’.”

“I’m about to tell Gina Porter that I’ve been in love with her since Homecoming. I don’t think this is something I can just be _cas’_ about.”

Red shrugged again. “See, this is exactly why you told Nini that you liked her song about _clouds_.”

**Betty right now is the last time I can dream about what happens when you see my face again.**

And now he was riding on his skateboard, riding straight to her house.

He was finally going to do it. Like, this would be make or break.

His heart had decided long ago that Gina Porter was the girl for him.

She could tell him to go fuck himself. Or she could trust him, and tell him the same.

In the back of his mind, he’d thought about it a lot. What he’d say to her, how he’d say it to her. How he’d look at her.

He couldn’t do it in the middle of the party, because no doubt would glances be shot in their direction, and he’d have to shout the words at her over the deafening sound of the music.

He could lead her, hand-in-hand, into the garden, and tell her on a hanging swing as both of their legs swung absent-mindedly below them.

Or he could kiss her. Right on the porch. Not have to articulate the words he’d inevitably have to tell her. Show her that he was in love with her with actions instead of words. Maybe a part of him had subconsciously been doing that the whole time.

Perhaps, she’d be the one to smile with so much happiness exuding out of her very essence like always, and she’d be the one to take his face in her hands, and she’d be the one to break whatever this was between them. Like he’d dreamt after the dance.

The pumping of music from the house was becoming audible now, as Ricky drew ever closer to the party. The number of cars parked along the streets started to increase too, all crowding around the one house.

Like it or not, this was about to happen. And in a way, it had all been leading up to this.

**So I showed up at your party.**

His knuckle rapped on the door.

Almost immediately it opened, with EJ stumbling through the doorway, struggling to keep his balance as he leaned heavily upon Howie’s shoulder.

EJ looked Ricky up and down. “You?” he groaned. Ricky nodded uncomfortably.

EJ looked to Howie, back to Ricky, and finally back to Howie. “What sayeth you Howard?” He spoke in a heavy Olde English accent. “Should we let him in?”

Howie rolled his eyes, supporting EJ’s shoulders. “Sorry about him. You’re looking for Gina?”

“How did you-”

Howie’s eyes widened in realisation. “I, uh, I guess I unintentionally pick up snippets of conversations at Red’s.”

At the mention of Gina, EJ’s ears pricked up as he leaned, ever unsteady, on the doorway. “Aw. I like Gina. And she really likes _you_ for some reason. I don’t know why. Because I really don’t like you all that much at all really. I haven’t forgiven you for what you did to my nose. Like I think it’s permanently damaged because of you.” He sighed.

Howie’s eyes widened once more. “I am so sorry, he’s such an idiot.” Howie looked around for a moment but his eyes ended up landing sympathetically upon Ricky’s. “Can you make sure he doesn’t hurl whilst I go get Gina?” Reluctantly, Ricky let Howie loop EJ’s arm around his neck, as he walked away right into the heat of the party.

EJ broke free of Ricky’s hold, stumbling down the stairs and leading him onto the front porch of the garden. “Come with me, come with me.” He ushered Ricky away from the front porch onto the lawn of the garden. “I’ve got a secret.” He chirped in a sing-songy voice, as he precariously lowered himself down onto the grass.

“Yeah?” Ricky hurriedly asked, more filling the silence of the night than anything, as he kept anxiously glancing back over his shoulder, waiting for the moment when Howie would lead Gina out of the party, and she’d light up the darkness of the night.

EJ slumped back, lying flat on the grass. “Gina talks about you. A lot. _Way_ too much.”

Ricky smiled dismissively as he looked down at EJ. “That’s the secret?”

EJ all too aggressively shook his head. “No… that’s not the secret. The secret is -” He looked up, back at the door to his house, before waving his hand at Ricky, asking him to get closer. “Gina’s in love with -”

“Ricky!”

Gina stood in the doorway, backlit by the fluorescent hallway lights. But he still saw her just as clearly as he ever had. She was wearing a pastel blue dress that flowed out around her waist like it was weightless, and her hair was piled into curls on top of her head.

He left EJ on the grass and walked over. She smiled at him, her eyes always on his as he slowly helped her down the steps and onto the wooden porch area of the front garden. The lights of the stars and the moon illuminated in her eyes as she looked up at him, incessantly playing with one of the rings on her fingers.

She looked iridescent, even in the putrid darkness of the garden. It was like she was producing her light, surrounding only them in their own bubble.

“Hi.” She hummed, voice barely above a whisper.

**Will you have me?**

"You two haven't killed each other yet?" She smiled as she pointed down to EJ. Then she started to walk along the length of the porch. “I was scared you weren’t going to come.” She looked down at her feet as she spoke.

“Couldn’t miss it for the world.”

She rolled her eyes, elbowing him so gently in his arm. “You’re so dramatic.”

He smiled. “You love me for it.”

**Will you love me?**

Sharply, she sucked in a breath. “About that,” she bit her lip, searching for the words,” I probably should have said something about it earlier, but with everything - What I mean is that I completely lost my head, but this past couple of weeks, they’ve felt just the same as they always did, you know? And I think Homecoming was such a revelation for me because it was you who made me realised that I shouldn’t be scared to let down my walls. But I was scared, because of, you know, everything and - _Well_ what I mean to say, Ricky, is that -”

He took a deep breath.

**Will you kiss me on the porch in front of all your stupid friends?**

Then he stepped forward, and placed his hand lightly on her face, as one of her hands went to his elbows. He knew all eyes were on them. Howie was sitting beside EJ on the lawn only a few metres in front of them, and they were standing right in front of the wide-open french windows as the music continued to blare out around them.

His lips made contact with hers.

“That’s what I meant to say opening night.” He whispered, their noses still lightly touching together.

**If you kissed me, will it be just like I dreamed it? Will it patch your broken wings?**

She smiled into his lips, kissing him lightly once more as her hand moved to his, which was still so gently sitting on the skin of her cheek. “Definitely better than not saying anything, I think.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She hummed, and he lifted her into a hug, spinning around as his arms wrapped around her waist. “Gina Porter loves me, Gina Porter loves me.” He teased, laughing into the curls that sat around her neck as he placed her back down onto the solid ground. Her arms stayed around his neck, her face stayed in the crook of his neck as she giggled. He smiled. “You’ve gone soft Gi.”

She moved back, feigning an offended gasp. “Have not.”

“Have too.”

“Have not.”

“Have too.”

“Have not.”

“If I agree with you, will you kiss me again?”

Her eyes widened with her smile. “Three times not enough for you Bowen?” He shook his head. Pretending to think for a moment, she quickly nodded rapidly, biting on the tip of her tongue as he smiled at her.

“Okay then,” he placed one of his hands on her face again, and she leaned into it, whilst his other hand found its way to her waist. “You, Gina Porter, scare the fuck out of me. Everyday. You’re terrifying.”

She giggled. “In a good way though, right?”

He kissed her once more. “Does that answer your question?”

**I'm only seventeen. I don't know anything, but I know I missed you.**


End file.
